The Chinese Traditional Acceptance of Information from the View of Contemporary Communication Theory

Shao Peiren

Fellow of Academic Committee of Zhejiang University, Deputy Director for the Faculty of Humanities, Zhejiang University, Director for Institute of Communication Studies, Zhejiang University, and PhD. candidate supervisor.

Communication School of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310028 Telephone :(86) 0571-8827-3032 Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Language is proper to mankind, the externalization of human kindness. Because of it what an audience accepts is his self-portrait, we can analyze and get to know the state, rules and characteristics of Chinese ancient audience thorough traditional information acceptance concept and the interpretation. We can get that “Guan”, “Wei” and “Wen” is special Chinese acceptance concept by the ways of basing on the textual research, discrimination and organization of various concepts of acceptance of information at one end and analyzing and reasoning of relevant information and contemporary research achievements at the other end. The emotions of these three concepts reflect the ancient Chinese unique acceptance state and the quintessence of the dated brightness comes through them. This paper also shows five chief notes: (1), piety and seriousness; (2) chewing and repetition; (3) subtila and depth; (4) hierarchy and progress; (5) contact and peep.

“It is language that makes human being what he is. He who can not use a language can not be regarded as a true man”. Language, original and peculiar to human, is the element and the code of information dissemination; is the hallmark and characteristic of mankind. And at the same time it is a psychological weapon used by men in knowing the world, reflecting the world and in remoulding the world. Therefore, we get down to applying embryology, smeiology, communication and acceptance theory as well as their methods, aiming at exploring the emergence and evolvement of the Chinese acceptance concepts, in turn guiding and inferring the state and features of ancient Chinese audience to a large extent and showing the world another treasure of the traditional Chinese cultures In traditional Chinese culture, lots of concepts and vocabularies are used to represent and reflect the activities of information accepting. We can group these words into three: on vision, there are “Jian”, “Kan”, “Shi”, “Guan” and “Du”; on auditory, there are “Ting” and “Wen”; on palate, there are “Pin”, “Chang”, “Wei” and “JuJue”. However, it comes into being, no mater in the time of emergence, frequency or identifiable degree, that “Guan”, “Wei” and “Zhi” can mostly reflect and reveal the primeval and consistent mental state and operating characteristics in information acceptance and embodies that the dated Eastern Wisdom still rings in communication, knowledge and acceptance. And what’s more, the uniqueness of ancient Chinese can be found under the help of the latest research finding primarily.

Guan: accepting information detailed and elegantly

Guan means watching carefully. “To watch and listen without further understanding is no better than unknown”. [2] However, watching is no Guan because of less of meticulousness and concentration. Guan is always detailed and serious-minded. The word “Kan” in Chinese does not only represent information acceptance but visit, treat, look after and guard while “Guan” means accepting information in a large measure. “Be on the lookout”, “go sightseeing”, “view and admire” and “view” seems at the first sight to have nothing with acceptance but these words are all accepting the information form the outer world. So “Guan” is more frequently used than “Kan” to describe the outside information got through the eyes. Although both are acceptance of textual information, in the ancients’ view, “to Guan a book” is different from “to read”. “To Guan a book” is browsing silently, acceptance without dissemination, with clear duty. “To read” is reading loudly, acceptance and dissemination at the same time, with no clear duties. It is single-channel information-acceptance using eyes only when to view a book, so it is smooth and steady. To read which is dual-channel information-acceptance using eyes and ears meantime, is in a rush and in a muddle. “To Guan a book” is elegant. He who does view a book seems to be well-rounded. To read appears to be bright. He who does read seems to be in the process of progress. Accordingly, the ancient refined scholars used “to Guan a book” far more frequently than “to read”. When referred to “Guan” in the ancient books and records no mater “to Guan a book” or to appreciate an article, ancient accented that to observe and examine the diversity and contradictoriness facts or objects should be uniformly and holistically. It is said in the book ZhouYi XiCi that “the sage finds the new changes in the world, and he observes carefully to find the rules”. He who accepts information in a way of consolidation and integrity will not be plagued by numerous and disorderly information. Only in this guideline, in accepting information, can we proceed from the easy to the difficult, from the outside to the inside, to get its pretty charm and the real knowledge and can we get the graceful bearing of Jin dynasty in watching and studying their calligraphy and painting and can we get the manners and rules of Tang dynasty in appreciating and enjoying their poems. ChengYi used to told us that In Guan, we have to proceed from the reality and persist in seeking truth from facts without stereotypes and at the same time we do not have to offer farfetched or dubious explanations, to measure another's corn by one's own Bushel. [5] Although every text contains abundant connotation, the Guaner should not interpret it insatiable. Whatever interpretation outside of the limitation will not fit the text itself. ZhuXi said “To read with stereotypes, there will be all private interpretation. He who is a hard reader will be brave; He who is a soft reader will be tolerant. There are all things in the books”. Liu Kezhuang, a poet in NanSong Dynasty, advocated that in appreciating poem, we should not give strained interpretations but be easy. He had said that in a poem that “the finest men of past centuries were always easy in enjoying poems and they never wanted to be distinctive and individual. If the fine men in the following centuries put into it, there will no word left without doubt”. It is surely that a reader will has his own interpretation based on the text. However, it is unacceptable if his interpretation is beyond the text itself or the merit. In enjoying superior works, a reader has not only to Guan in integrity and on himself but “Bo Guan”, “Jiu Guan” and “Shan Guan”. “Bo Guan” means enjoying it in a wide field, enjoying a lot of superior works. Only in the way of “Bo Guan”, can we compare them, can we improve our enjoying skills and can we give a objective appraisal in an all-round way. To this idea, LiuXie wrote in his book that he who has enjoyed thousands of pieces of music knows what kind of music is heavenly music; he who has seen thousands swords what kind of sword is useful sword. So “BoGuan” must come before knowing a fact in a comprehensive way. Enjoying superior works to form strong power of discriminating will gives the reader the power of telling good from bad. Weighing without selfishness and critiquing balanced will be a mirror of distinguishing superior works from the bad ones. Apart from “Bo Guan”, it is no use in improving enjoying skills without “Jiu Guan”. “Jiu Guan” means enjoying superior works in a long period of time, enjoying it repeatedly to go from one small clue one can see what is coming, to go from the easy to the difficult and complicated and to go from the state of dislike to the state of highly like. Ou Yangxiu knew it very well. In his book of critiquing calligraphy, he had said that he did not like Li Yong’s works at his first sight. He knew that Li Yong’s works had its interest and charm because of Li Yong is well known of being good at calligraphy. So he enjoyed it lasting a long time to find that few can do better than him. The longer time it takes, the more you like it. Being parallel to making friends, if the first step is the hardest, the friendship will last longest. Enjoying superior works repeatedly will do good to the reader to get the deeper charm and get to be interested in it. In turn, the beliked will attract the viewer very much to make the viewer be absorbed in it. As the story goes, on the way back, Ou Yangxun saw an ancient tablet written by Suo Jing so he stopped the horse to see it at first and he returned, got down to watch it after a few steps. When he was tired after a while, he sat on the blanket to enjoy. At last, in the following three days he stayed beside the ancient tablet, enjoying it day by night. He was still reluctantly to leave the tablet. Infatuated with superior works to such extent in this way of viewing can not be found again. “Shan Guan” is another way of improving enjoying skills. “Shan Guan” is enjoying the works from multi-levels and multi-angels in a flexible way. Liu Xie also gave us the method to judge an article. He suggested that an article should be judged in the following six steps: first, the types or forms; second, the genius and meaning of the language; third, continuity and innovation; forth, unity and diversity; fifth, subject or theme; sixth, prosody and rhythm. That is to say that in enjoying superior works, we have to enjoy the structure, elegant diction and innovation on the one hand and the writer’s craft of making climaxes in the plot and making a reasonable end and the craft of using allusions, making examples and grasping the rhythm. “Shan Guan” is useful in knowing men and read men. The ancient thought that the hardest is to know men and the most important is also to know men. So, he who knows other is learnt, and he who knows himself is wise. The knowing men question will be easily solved if a man with the weapon of “Shan Guan”. Zhu Geliang summarized the way of knowing men in “Seven Guan” while Lue Kun summarized in “Five Guan”. However, in an earlier book, , the writer gave his idea of knowing men as “Nine Guan”, and they are: to judge a nobled man by his belief; to judge a rich man by his almsgiving; to judge a impoverished man by his rejection; to judge a low man by his undone; to judge a poor man by his untaken; “Guan” is a very Chinese concept of information acceptance. Fact, language and ment is melted in “Guan”, and such a concept stands for a integrated and comprehensive way of acceptance, abundant meaningful in the present age.

“Wei”: the most Chinese concept of acceptance

“Wei” is a eating and drinking notion but in traditional Chinese was widely used as process, feature and standard in acceptance.”Wei” is even more Chinese than “Guan”. It is Laotse who use “Wei” in acceptance. In his book, , he said that “Accomplish do-nothing; Attend to no-affaires; ‘Wei’ (Taste) the flavorless”. The “Wei” here obviously does not mean as the “Wei” in the sentence “When the Master was in Ch'i, he heard the Shao, and for three months did not know the “Wei” (taste) of flesh”. “Wei of flesh” means some particular sort of sense that can be caught by tongue or nose (taste or smell, etc) while the “flavorless” means the features of the text, letting the men get some enjoying in vision, hearing, mentality. The flavorless also interpreted as “Tao” is mild to the taste. Looked at, it cannot be seen; Listen to, it cannot be heard; Applied, its supply never fails. “Flavorless” does not mean tasteless but indifferent. What is “Wei”? Leisurely and carefree. “Wei” likes the gas, flavorless is indifferent. Xu Shangying also gave his understanding of Wei in his book On Guqin: Never go in for taste, the taste will appear, as the tasteful springs; never go in for scented, and aroma will appear, as the scented flowers. Enjoy in this way, the flavorless comes true. The former Wei in Laotse’s word “Wei wu Wei” (Wei the flavorless) and the latter Wei in is no noun but verb. Those two “Wei” is the process of acceptance which means chew, taste, enjoy, discriminate and explore, as in the words: “Wan Wei”, “Ti Wei”, “Jue Wei” and “Xun Wei”. Wang Chong of Han Dynasty said: Articles should be magnificent and beautiful; Languages should be reasonable and clever. The words should be pleasing; the story should be flavored. Wei does no more means the behavior of the nose and mouth but psychological activities; the object of Wei is no more the substantial smell but mental information. To men, beautiful and meaningful information is more attractive and more worth cherishing. It goes in the same way of Zhong Rong’s comments on Zhang Xie’s poem: His poem, as run riot and luxuriant plants and the beautiful music, makes men be absorbed in. Wei, in acceptance, has its own rules. The rules of Wei in traditional Chinese culture come down to the following five pieces: First, open and empty the mind; enjoy and taste the beautiful of cosmic inventory. In the book Zong Bing said: In knowing the world, sage should get “Tao”; In critiquing, wise men should be empty. He wanted to tell us that a good critic should give up his own opinions to taste the image of landscape painting in a state of emptiness. That is to say, emptiness is to taste; To taste must open and empty the mind. Without opening and emptying the mind, to taste accurately will be out of the question. Opening and emptying the mind should goes first, and tasting, viewing and getting the deeper meaning follows and then the epiphany appears. Second, know Wei after prolonged Wei. In the ancient’s opinion, to enjoy superior works must be for a long time to digest and savor; otherwise, it is hard to get the “True Wei” to read ten lines at a glance, to read superficially. Yan Yu realized that not until reading Lisao for a long time, the “True Wei” will turn up. As Ou Yangxiu also put it in his Liuyi Poetry Talks, as his (Mei Yaochen) recent poems became unsmooth form easy, it is increasing difficult to he who is not learned. To enjoy unsmooth poems is parallel to enjoy olive, True Wei will stay for a long time. Wei Xi said in his article to his children that the way of being a good listener: If you are not modest, you will get no good words; If you are not circumspective, you will get no True Wei. In a word, the True Wei will not come true without prolonged Wei. Third, Wei the True Wei out of the superior works itself. The profound works is rich of indistinct meaning; to enjoy such works should go from itself to its infinite charm. Only through enjoy its distinct meaning, can a reader get the works’ true Wei. How can a writer write his works in rich of distinct meaning? Liu Xie gave his points: implicit is good when colorful and diverse, beautiful sentences are good when excellent and original; implicit content introduce analogy; normal at first and marvelous at last. Only in this way, can a reader be made tasteful. Forth, Wei of superior works is no bound. A theory accepted by modern acceptance theory is that the great images and works are always subtle and multi-faced, and it has infinite meaning as rich mineral deposits that can be digested by the audience for centuries. This is just a so-called new theory because Zhong Rong has made such a brilliant exposition in Shi Pin before 1480. Use after thinking about Three Yi and develop it; Accept Jian An Vigor of Style and polish the words with stylistic brilliance; A poem written in these ways is a poem of best; Can be digested infinitely; Can attract a reader. “Can be digested infinitely” here is a rule and feature often contained in enjoying successful works, as Zhong Rong puts it. Fifth, poem after Wei. In Discourse of Xizhai, Yang Wanli said:” To read must get the Wei outside of the works itself; He who considers he can read is a liar if he can not get the Wei outside of the works itself.” And this is to read, imagine creation and dissemination. After having read through a book a hundred times, a man can get its meaning as easy as winking. So do not refuse to read a book a hundred times; He who reads a book again and again and chews upon can naturally know it. Yang Yi also thinks that a reader who wants to sit beside the writer, talking to him and having a two-way communication in reading must read and chew all the works about the book in reading, or it will be difficult to talk to the writer. Wei as a covert process in the depth of reader, a cannot-be-recorded process is not only a process of acceptance of digesting, chewing, decoding and knowing but a process of reaction of making differences in mind, sense and taste, and the reaction is various and daedal. Accepted by traditional Chinese culture, on the one hand, the reaction of Wei is sometimes related to the characteristic of text. Generally speaking, emotionally texts arise interest; philosophical texts arise taste; humorous texts arise gusto; accustomed texts arise relish. On the other hand, the reaction of Wei associates to the features of the text. Often, metrical texts arise lingering charm and a magic touching arises inspiration. And what’s more, some reaction of Wei, of course, arose by the state of their acceptance and perception. Chewing and digesting of superior works always is aftertaste; prolonged thinking about the elegant aesthetical target always leaves lasting and pleasant impression. As for the inferior works, they were criticized as “tasting as wax”, ‘difficult and dull’ and “vapid and pointless”. What Wei values is the meaning between lines, the unexpected gist but based on the text and at the same time, beyond. The concept of Wei which is focus on the subjective feeling means a lot to modern communication practice.

Zhi: a deeper and higher level of acceptance

“Zhi” is an acceptance concept on deeper and higher level. Master Xun said that “Jian” is no better than Zhi; Zhi is no better than carrying out. “Jian” and “Zhi” are both concepts of acceptance but on different levels: “Jian” means having seen, reflecting the first level of acceptance, the level of watching and discerning; “Zhi” means “knowing”, reflecting the final level of acceptance, the level of understanding and appreciating. The relation between them is that “Jian” is the basis and premise of “Zhi”; “Zhi” is the development and sublimation of “Jian”; Having “Jian” may not means having “Zhi”, but having no “Jian” never means having “Zhi”; They both are in interaction, going hand in hand. Since Zhi is higher level of acceptance, it would be a state hard to enter. Liu Xie realized this long time ago, and he said that to comment correctly is hard; a good commenter is hard to meet too, one or two in the past ten centuries. Tao Qian also gave similar comments, he said that knowing men is hard but knowing each other is even harder. Cao Xueqin even thought that 1,000 pieces of gold is easy to get, bosom friend is hard to get even one. Liu Zhou, a man in the same of Liu Xie, wrote in Liutse that the cause of a good commenter being hard to meet is not the contemporary men stressing the present rather the past, stressing the heard rather the seen or stressing the fame rather the fact but their short of power of understanding the superior works. Because of this, the writer’s contemporary men will not follow their heart to give precise comment. Such condition would fail to distinguish between and falsehood. Bo Ya was good at playing Gu Qin and Zhong Ziqi is good at enjoying. Bo Ya played like mountain. Zhong Ziqi’s comment was: Wonderful, lofty as Mountain Tai. Bo Ya played as streaming. Zhong Ziqi’s comment was: Wonderful, overflowing as Yangtze River. What did Bo Ya think about, Zhong Ziqi will have to know. Bo Ya was stopped at the foot by abrupt rainstorm when he visited the north of Mountain Tai. Feeling bad, so he played like raining and then like landslide. Zhong Ziqi is prone to tell all the meaning of the music plated by Bo Ya. Bo Ya stopped to marvel that it’s wonderful and marvelous to have such a commenter that could understand all of his music. In the history of art acceptance, Ou Yangxiu’s admire of Mei Yaochen’s poem, Zhu Xi’s honor to Chen Ziang’s poem and Su Shi’s fine commentary are all regarded as acceptance in the way of Zhi Yin. Although it is hard for ordinary men to comment works in this way, but this does not mean that we the common cannot comment art works correctly. Liu Xi’s point is that it is entirely possible for ordinary men to enjoy artworks as long as acquire some methods. There two methods of Zhi. Above all, reading widely, broaden in experience and comparing and distinguish. Then, grasping the emotion through the words and grasping the main idea through the plot. The ancients believed that knowing men is a higher pursuit compared to Zhi Yin. It is said in Book of history that knowing men making a man philosophical. Confucius also believed that knowing men other than self-unknown is worth worrying about. Unknowing men is failed to know other men’s information thoroughly. So, knowing men is hard; men are hard to know; even the Sage. Wei Zhi said: He who knows others is learned and he who knows himself is wise. Knowing others is difficult and knowing himself is difficult too. Though knowing men is difficult, we could do that in some methods such as communication. The ancients had given their points. “Knowing men comes after knowing others’ words”. “Not knowing others’ words makes it impossible to know men”. “What is “Knowing others words”? To the partial word, we should know its short; to the extreme words, we should its wrong places; To the ill- natured words, we should know its point away from the truth; To the hedge words, we should know its wits end”. “We speak what we thought, and we write what we image. We can know a man though his words and his works”. The hand writing is the man; the poem is the man; the article is the man. So we observe a man though his handwriting and works and know the man. Ye Xie had taken on the study of the fact in question and he found that all the articles and poems were the writer themselves without any left. He continues to write that if we know a piece of works of the writer, we will know his other works. And he said that as for the poem, Guan LI Qinglian’s poem, we could get that LI is an open-hearted and upright man; Guan DuFu’s poem, we could get that he is a patriotic man; other giants are all in this way, such as Han Yu, Ou Yangxiu, Su Shi, and so on. The news mirrors the real world; communication is the exteriorization of humanity. The audience should get to know almost the real creator or disseminator through the poem and articles which are the building materials of character and humanity. In fact, form the view of disseminator, most of them is not afraid of being known or is longing to be known. Some a man has said that having a bosom friend is worth a life. Zeng Zi thought that he would not be very happy even if he was known and he would not be very dolorous. However, being known is better than not being known. Xue Xuan also wanted to be known, but he suggested that this must be done step by step: Even though not being known, it is not a hurry thing. But to be known is very difficult too. After relegated, Liu Zongyuan’s articles were hurt commented as a man once fall all will treat upon him. He sigh for it that it was difficult for him to create but it is even more difficult for the others to know his works. The reason for easy to create, hard to be known, he thought, was that men stress the present rather the past, stress the near rather than the far and stress the ordinary rather than the ruler and such problem dated from thousands years ago. So, we can draw a conclusion, in the acceptance history, that the ancients were also stressed in their times and was gloried after ages. Since the contemporary reader cannot know the article, not to mention the writer himself, the reader in the after ages. This is a way of comforting himself, a kind of cannot-help but it is also a mental countermeasure satisfied the acceptance laws. In history, when the writer was discarded by their contemporary reader, they pinned all of their hopes on the readers in the following generations to hope their works be liked and spreading. Yang Xiong’s dead was companied by his FaYan’s glorious; Si Maqian’s breath also was companied by ShiJi’s twilight. Flaubert, the French writer who wrote Mrs. Baofali, was defeated by his despair of the readers in his times; Stendchl, a French writer who wrote Red and Black, also was abandoned and sneered at. However, it was turned to true that their masterpieces were highly commented and accepted by the readers after their death. He who is a disseminator of high level and his works will be Zhi by one day even ignored in their times. What turns out is that in traditional Chinese, Zhi is recognized deeper and higher, and Zhi is advanced to the level of knowledge construction and culture formation. And it helps us realize the essential function of communication: social culture construction.

The basic character of acceptance in traditional ancient Chinese

From what has discussed above, Guan, Wei and Zhi, the three traditional Chinese acceptance concepts, could tell us a lot about the laws and rules of acceptance in Chinese through summarization, conclusion and exploration. And this is a form of long-history ancient wisdom. Based on this, we can continue to explore and summarize some features of acceptance in ancient Chinese (especially the refined scholars). First, piety and seriousness. The ancient Chinese were piety and respecting to the text, serious to acceptance. China is a land of reading; Chinese are respected to books like Christians to classical masterpieces. Lin Ytang has said that the worship of scholarship has taken the form a popular superstition that no paper bearing writing should be thrown about or used for indecent purposes, but should be collected and burned at schools or temples. He who is in reading must be in the state of open- minded, intently, and being all eyes. Lots of stories of studious are still classical materials for the parents to teach their children, such as studies and the awl, to bore a hole on the wall in order to get some light from the neighbor's house and reading by the light of fireflies. Such kind of piety and seriousness may come from the ancient Chinese worship and afraid to letters and symbols. According to the Huai South Son, it rained when Cang Jie created writing. The invention of writing was seen as incredible by the ancients. Indeed, letters was a miraculous thing which was worshiped and feared by the primeval ancients. It was the privilege of wizard, and there was magical power of writing; it was controlled by the authority,so there was special authority effect in words. When the words were used to naming, the ancients thought that words were name, name was a man’s soul and the soul was the man. So, Zhang Guifang, a character in Apotheosis of Heroes, could let a man down the horse by calling his name; YinJiao King, a character in pilgrimage to the west, could make a man into his magic calabash by calling his name; When Huang Feihu was called, he fell off his horse and Sun Wukong got into the calabash by being called. The couplet written in words was used to ending disaster and praying fortune; Praying slogan which was also written in words was used to wish all the beat things and the help from God. We can get that there are magical color and magical power in words in the ancient Chinese mind. So it is no odd for a reader to read in the open-minded and intently state. Second, chewing and repetition. The ancient Chinese were always chewing and enjoying the books picked. In the ancients’ opinion, reading once was denied, to read ten lines at a glance was even more so. The Chinese characters are different from to the western alphabetic writing and its particular form, structure and purport also need to be enjoyed repeatedly and chewed slowly. According to the modern psychology, there is no information difference in form and length of Chinese characters to trigger off the foveal vision so the Chinese readers have to contrite on smaller meaning group that is to say it cast the Chinese readers more time to stare at the characters and this slow down reading. And what the words “Jiu Shi’, “Xiang Shi”, “Di Guan”, “Hui Wei”, “Ju Wei”, “Xun Wei”, “Yan Wei” and “Wan Wei” represent and accentuate in the Chinese classics is the chewing and repetition of acceptance. Third, subtila and depth. As to reading the following attitudes are always opposed: reading like dragonflies skimming (over) the water, to stop after getting a little knowledge, negligent and half- comprehendingly. In the ancient China, to be an educated man is unrelenting and strenuous efforts, need to read a great number of books written by unspoken classical style of writing even neglect their sleep and meals. And the educated man should explore and chewing the source of the meaning and words deeply and subtila and this need exceptional good memory and special skills. They did this in the way of amusing and enjoying themselves. Meantime, the Chinese scholars have strong interest in research by themselves and the scholar searching in the encyclopedia will be look down upon. For this Lin Yutang said that good scholars did not need encyclopedias and we had many such walking encyclopedias in flesh and blood. In the spirit of intensive personal heroism, the ancient scholars compile lots of masterpieces, like An Analytical Dictionary of Characters, Dream Stream essays and Compendium of Materia Medica. One should sit to study for ten years and never writes down anything irrelevant. Four, hierarchy and graduation. The ancient Chinese scholar always insisted reading should go from the easy to the difficult, from the outside to the inside, from one point to another and from the article to the meaning. From one small clue one can see what is coming. After observing a person's faults and failings, one will understand what he really is. One can know men thorough listening to their words and looking at their conduct. And these are the ideas of Guan. There is hierarchy in Wei. From “Wei Xiang” to “Wei Shen”, from “Zhi Wei” to “Yu Wei”. And according to Zhi, to know must comes after having seen, “Zhi Sheng” comes before “Zhi Yin” and “Zhi Ren” comes after “Zhi Yin”. Acceptance in the way of hierarchy and graduation is not only satisfied to the laws but avoiding the improper response by reputation, position, appearance. There are many records of improper response in the way of knowing men comes before knowing articles, the halo effect. Zhang Shuai was good at poem at the age of twelve and he had a poem a day, and there were almost two thousands. Yu Na, an authoritative source, pulled his poems to pieces. Zhang Shuai rewrote some and asked others to take his poems to Yu Na and tricking that the poems were written by the famous poet Shen Yue. Yu gave high appreciation to the poems. Zhang told Yu that those poems were all his works and Yu went away ashamed. Huan Tan also said that once the audience knew the appearance of the disseminator, he would enlarge his fancy or abhor of the writer’s appearance to his works. So, acceptance in the way of going from the works itself, going step by step and with careful analyses and objective comment is the correct acceptance. Such a acceptance concept in the ancient Chinese is still full of vitality in such a media society with information explosion. Five, contact and peep. Ancient Chinese always went from the article to the writer, from the Shi Pin to Ren Pin. They were sure that the article is the poem, the poem is the article and the poem and the article is the man. Shi Pin is the Ren Pin. Calligraphy is his learning, his ability and is his aim, is himself at last. This kind of contact comes from the audiences’ strong desire of peep to the disseminator. It was recorded in Book of History that love a person, love the crow in his house. This is the saying that who love a garden love a greenhouse too. Ou Yangxiu said that love his book love himself. The greeting and the following talk in Chinese is filled with the desire to pry into one’s life. To the Chinese, if such eggs are delicious, he wants to taste the hen. So the amateur, the amateur of Mei Lanfang, movie fans, music fans and admiring fans come forth. And the text is puffed discretionally, expounded randomly and is associated to anything. Tan Xian even insisted that in the books than the author knew. And this offer reasons to the farfetched interpretation, and thrust the may-not-be-true explanation to the author. In acceptance, if the audiences are indulgence in flattering, a gifted may be ruined while baleful interpretation may introduce literary persecution. It is sad that there were about more than twenty pieces of literary persecution, the authors were dismissed, sentenced or killed. So, nowadays, the responsible Chinese readers must control the creationary explanation and the peep, not let spread it to the improper state of ignoring the norm to the opposite of the disseminators’ pre- existing positions and purposes.

Conclusion

The careful experience and analyzes of the features of “Guan”, “Wei” and “Zhi”, can not only do inspiration to the modern communication research and practice, nut do good to us to find the Chinese profound and modern special eastern wisdom in the level of knowledge and acceptance. It is an international cultural view and special Chinese communication ethnology. In this sense, in ancient, “Yan” points to object but more than object and itself. A reader must get the meaning between lines through “Guan”, “Wei” and “Zhi”. The pointed meaning is still based on the object and Yan and is the presentation of object and charm of Yan. In acceptance, the Chinese is not only finding himself, but what are more important is Guan objects by Yan, and associating all the works of God to get to a supreme cultural level: the introjection of objects and men, the unity of heaven and human beings. And it subtly reflected the perspective of dissemination-acceptance. From the object to the Yan and finally to the meaning, such a process can not be divided but Yan points to object, object points to meaning, meaning returns to object and meaning comes before Yan. And such a process can be got through Guan, Wei and Zhi, and it was united in the ancient Chinese artistic state at last. And this fully interprets the concept and mind-set of common relations. And this is different from the material-psychological dichotomy mechanic mind-set in the West since modern times but is according to the contemporary cultural ecology and culture anthropology. So it is reasonable and valuable in practice. Finally, I have to point out that we can analyze the Chinese ancient acceptance concepts in communication, semiotics and aesthetic reception and we can apply to sociology, psychology and anthropology. The form of ancient Chinese acceptance in each subject is no multi-dimensional and stereoscopic but one-dimensional and plane. Only in the combination of those imaginations in multi- dimensional field of view, can we get a objective and all-round conclusion. Therefore, I just write down no more than some parts of the ancient Chinese acceptance, and I know that there is much work to be done to explore and integrate the rules and laws in Chinese acceptance because of the traditional Chinese culture is in great profoundness.

References

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